Helping families cope

Tuesday

NEWPORT, R.I. — There’s more awareness than ever before about the mental toll war takes on soldiers, but much to learn about how their return home affects their families, according to Susan Erstling.

The Newport resident and senior vice president of Providence-based Family Service of Rhode Island will be part of a panel discussion Thursday morning about military trauma and its impact on the children of service personnel. The conference is at Butler Hospital in Providence.

“We’ve been working with more military families over the past year and it seems like there’s been additional emphasis on the importance of what we’re trying to do,” Erstling said. “It’s always important for teachers, doctors, nurses and everyone else to know that sometimes these families are going through exceptional circumstances, particularly the children.”

She got used to being at the center of emergencies and stressful situations because her father, Charles Schilling, was the fire chief of Livingston, N.J., her hometown, Erstling said. The compassion of her mother, Marie, had as much to do with her decision to go into social work, which evolved into her current field, she said.

In September 2012, Erstling and her team at Family Service of Rhode Island received a $1.6 million federal National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative grant to study the effects of trauma and to train government and nonprofit employees how to recognize and treat it.

The focus during the early parts of the study was on those who suffered trauma as a result of crime or other unexpected incidents. The team’s work expanded more recently to include trauma suffered by military families.

“There hasn’t been much of a concerted effort about the impacts of trauma on the children of military families,” Ertsling said. “The (Veterans Affairs) Hospitals do a good job helping parents, but children are often not part of that equation, unfortunately.”

In 2004, a team with Family Service of Rhode Island started working with the Providence Police Department to provide help to those who had witnessed or been involved in traumatic events, she said. That service has expanded to include the East Providence Police Department and Rhode Island State Police.

“I don’t think most people ordinarily think about what happens to the victim of a rape, shooting or stabbing two or three days later,” Erstling said. “That’s especially true for the children who observe something like this. Children see and hear a lot, and there are times when adults tend not to recognize that as much as they should. It’s important we find out what they’re thinking.”

Without help, children may suffer long-lasting impacts that might not fade with the passage of time, she said.

“We have a team of people on call and they’ll provide an immediate response to try to reduce the impact of trauma, something we’ve found to be very useful psychologically and physically to get children back on track,” Erstling said. “Because if they don’t, there can be any number of ways it manifests itself, fights with peers, withdrawal and worse.”

It is always rewarding to provide the help that someone needs, she said.

“To me, it’s a very noble pursuit, to help people to deal with trauma,” Erstling said. “We don’t get paid a lot, but the rewards of the profession are amazing, to see when you’re able to help someone.”

Margaret Holland McDuff, CEO of Family Service of Rhode Island, said Erstling and her team have expanded the organization’s commitment to help provide trauma care for children and families. The team’s work is considered groundbreaking in some clinical circles.

“Under the guidance of Dr. Erstling, we have been building on this commitment for a number of years, working with police departments and other social service providers, and are honored to have heightened our work with military families,” Holland McDuff said.

Jeanne Sherman, an Army veteran who provides therapy for military families through Family Service of Rhode Island, is among the experts expected to participate in the trauma program Thursday. For more information, visit familyserviceri.org online.

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